TIFF 51: Andrew Scott delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in “Elsinore”

by Eurocheese

Heading into my screening of Elsinore on the last day of the festival, I had heard a number of mixed things on the ground. Some said the film pulls too readily at heartstrings without much plot. I’d heard rumblings that it was likely to win an audience prize, and it ended up taking the International People’s Choice Award before I saw it (yes, it’s eligible since it’s a UK production and La Bola Negra became automatically disqualified for the honor when it won TIFF’s general People’s Choice Award). There were those who thought Olivia Colman didn’t have enough to do, and I heard folks say it flat-out didn’t work. Since this was one of my most anticipated titles heading into the festival, I was beyond curious about how I would ultimately feel…

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First Oscar Predictions: The Actors, Lead and Supporting

by Nathaniel R

Can John Turturro hold on to his Sundance buzz for "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York" © Sony Pictures Classics

Whoops. Lost some momentum there to finish the first round of Oscar predictions. Let's take on Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor...

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Reader Ranking: Which one-time male nominee would you most like to see holding an Oscar?

by Team Experience

LIAM NEESON, HARVEY KEITEL, EDDIE MURPHY, and WILLIAM H MACY are just four of many actors we'd love to see stage an Oscar comeback.

Hello dearest readers. Inspired by Amy Madigan's amazing Oscar comeback we've spent the last month fantasizing about another such occurence. Because our audience is less into actors than actresses, we did a more abbreviated version of the mammoth actress poll / team ranking / reader ranking we recently posted in three parts. Today it's all in one. We polled all of you (readers and our writers together) and while there was much less participation (y'all just love your actresses, don'cha) we still thought the results were interesting. The same rules applied this time around. Namely 1) The actor had to still be alive and 2) over 50 years of age with 3) only one Oscar nomination to date that was 20 or more years ago. The final caveat was that they had to be Oscarless so Honoraries and awards in other categories would disqualify them. Interestingly enough despite the same criteria as the actress poll, there were far fewer men eligible (49 vs 75) indicating that there are less one-and-done Oscar nominations for male thespians. Or that they don't live as long; Both are true!

Maybe because there were fewer eligible contenders for this list, you didn't snub any of them. All 49 eligible men received at least one vote from a reader or team member here. Peter Firth (Equus), Randy Quaid (The Last Detail), and Gary Busey (The Buddy Holly Story) narrowly avoided complete snubs by landing on one ballot each. With the votes spread out over literally all eligible contenders, we're narrowing this to a top 15 (for actresses we did a top 26) as the nearest rivals for dominance (Elliott Gould, Alec Baldwin, and Alan Alda in that order) were quite a bit further back in terms of points /  number of ballots.

YOUR TOP FIFTEEN

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Readers Poll: Who would you love to see as the next... ?

Here we are again. I'll give you all one more day to vote (or convince a friend) to vote on this "who should be the next Amy Madigan?" poll, cutting that poll off this Thursday night (04/09). In the meantime though, let's honor the men despite our perpetual actressy focus! Same parameters apply as the last poll-- only one Oscar nomination, more than 20 years ago, still alive, over 50, still Oscarless -- the latter meaning that an Honorary Oscar still disqualifies you. So who should it be? Here are the actors who fit the brief. 

While a man isn't going to be able to win Best Supporting Actress like Amy Madigan, it's still fun to contemplate a similar scenario. It wasn't that long ago that it happened for Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer (2023). Judd Hirsch also managed to return after an even longer time away from his first nomination though his role in The Fabelmans (2022) wasn't substantial enough to spark a winning narrative like Madigan or RDJ.

OK, ready? VOTE BY SUNDAY, APRIL 12TH AND SHARE THE POLLS WITH FELLOW OSCAR / MOVIE / ACTING LOVERS.

A Brief History of Oscar Ties

by Cláudio Alves

Best Live-Action Short Film is the only category to count two ties in its Oscar history.

Last month, at the 98th Academy Awards, the world got to witness the seventh official tie in Oscar history. Presenter Kumail Nanjiani was quick to assure the audience that this was not a bit but something that was really happening as the Best Live-Action Short Film race came down to two victors – The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva. For someone like me, what made this even more momentous was how, for once, the Academy made a good choice, even if they didn’t make up their mind. In a category where good taste goes to die, our champions are good examples of the form, amply deserving of this honor and their new place in the annals of Oscar history. Who would have thought?

For some added context, join me as I go over these seven ties. Were they all deserving? Let’s find out…

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